As the bullet train works its way north from Tokyo, the capital’s high rise gradually gives way to a suburban sprawl increasingly punctuated by rural pockets of green. Then mountain ranges emerge on the horizon, and, but for the occasional blurred towns, civilization begins to give way to vast swathes of farmland.

Boston has an underbelly. Everybody knows about the patriots and Paul Revere and the great universities and hospitals and Brahmin lifestyles and winning sports teams, but one of the more quirky and surprising tours that visitors (and residents too) can take from the 40-year-old Boston By Foot organization reveals a completely different view of this fair city.

I have been sitting idle at 147 countries visited for several years. Palm Springs, Palm Beach, Oxnard (California), Seattle, Puerto Rico (not a separate country), Finger Lakes (NY) and Puerto Vallarta have been my recent trips. I realized it was time to move forward.